Billy Linville, a longtime influential Democrat political/business consultant and sometime lobbyist, minces no words: “I know Keisha Lance Bottoms (the Democrats’ candidate for governor). By any objective standard, she is the worst mayor in modern Atlanta history. She refused, or was unable, to lead and govern.” That’s why, while remaining a Democrat, he is launching “Democrats and Independents for Rick Jackson” who is the Republican gubernatorial candidate.
Linville and the multiracial coalition he’s forming are targeting the swing voters who are going to determine the general election winner in a divided Georgia that President Donald Trump won by only 115,000 votes in 2024.
Linville told James Magazine Online that he has known the Republican healthcare executive for over a decade and emphasizes that he’s “a good and decent man who will represent everyone.” He also believes the many agency and judicial appointments that Jackson as governor would make would be far better than ones chosen by Bottoms.
“I plan to communicate, remind and inform Democrats and Independent voters that, in fact, Rick Jackson, is a better choice,” Linville says. “I don’t agree with Rick on every policy position. But his life story and struggle are a window into his character.”
Coincidentally, the launch of the Democrats and independents for Jackson group comes the same week that two prominent Democrats– Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk and Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy— announced their support for Jackson. The lawmen emphasized that then-Atlanta Mayor Bottoms let rioting and destruction run rampant in 2020, while handcuffing city police from doing effective law enforcement.
